and some of my other hobbies too

Cover Stitch Hemming my Stargate T-Shirt

I bought this Stargate T-Shirt online more than a year ago. Even though it took forever to arrive in the mail and cost more than I usually spend for a T-shirt, I was pleased to get it.

Unfortunately it was too long and had been languishing in my closet waiting for me to fix it. I finally got on the job because I wanted to wear it to work.

I mark the new length and lay it out to cut.

I fold the shirt along the length to make sure my cut will be symmetrical.

I mark the cut about an inch and a quarter past the marking pins to leave as a hem

After marking the 1 and 1/4 inch hem all around I’m ready to press it.

With the hem cut and marked I ‘m ready to put in my cover stitch hem using my trusty Morita.

I have marked a few reference lines on masking tape to the right of my presser foot. These come in handy when I am trying to maintain a consistent distance from the seam to the edge of the fabric.

The cover stitch has to be sewn on the right side which must catch the raw edge on the underside. It takes a little practice, but if your hem is cut to the same width all around it’s not too hard to maintain a stitch that catches the edge perfectly. This is where the reference lines on the machine plate come in handy. Also, you can usually feel the raw edge through the material and guide your seam right over it.

Here are some views of the front and back of the resulting seam. The shirt is ready to wear again with a strong elastic hem that should last as long as the T-shirt!

One thing I should mention is that there is no way to finish off the cover stitch hem by backing up the stitch at the end. I usually just overlap the stitching a good two or three inches and carefully cut away the ends without pulling on them. This seems to work well, with not much more unraveling, even after multiple washings. I suppose if one was very meticulous (not me ), you could leave long ends and sort of weave them in as in knitting jobs.